2025 Physician Salary Benchmarks

Based on our data, the national average physician salary across all specialties in 2025 varies significantly by specialty, practice type, and experience level. Surgical specialties tend to offer higher compensation, with neurosurgery and orthopedics at the top end of the scale.

Satisfaction scores are based on anonymous physician ratings on a scale of 1-5, where 5 represents the highest satisfaction. These scores incorporate multiple factors including work-life balance, administrative burden, compensation fairness, practice autonomy, and whether physicians would choose the same specialty again.

The confidence score indicates the reliability of the data based on sample size. A higher confidence score (shown in green) means we have more data points for that specialty or practice type, making the averages more reliable. Lower confidence scores (shown in yellow or red) indicate fewer submissions, suggesting you should interpret those figures with caution.

Click the "Compare Specialties" button at the top of the table, then select up to two specialties you'd like to compare. This will present a side-by-side comparison of key metrics including average salary, satisfaction scores, hours worked, and more. This feature is particularly useful when deciding between different career paths.

The benchmark data is updated weekly based on ongoing physician submissions. The "Last Updated" date shown for each specialty indicates when that particular data point was last revised. We continuously collect new submissions to ensure our data remains accurate and reflects current market conditions.

The "Top Paid" and "Highest Satisfaction" badges are awarded to the top three specialties by average salary and job satisfaction, respectively. Only specialties with at least 5 salary submissions are eligible for these badges to ensure rankings are based on a reliable sample size.